SOCIAL POSITIVISM VS SOCIAL DARWINISM

NAME: RISHIKA. RM CLASS: 3EPS ROLL NO: 2030763

Introduction:
Sociology is the study of human society and helps us to explore ourselves.
Even though it has, its roots long before during the era of Aristotle, Plato, it has
established as an academic discipline only after the 19 th century. Auguste
Comte is known as the father of sociology and he is the one who coined the
term sociology. He is a French sociologist during the 19th century. During the
19th century, many scientific discoveries are taking place. He is famous for his
philosophy of positivism. Herbert spencer is both a philosopher and sociologist
and he is the major proponent of the evolutionary theory. He got his influence
from his father. His first major book was social statistics, which was released in
the year 1852. The social statics was borrowed from Auguste Comte and his
book deals with social dynamics. He made a huge impact in developing the
foundation for modern sociology.

Social Positivism by Auguste Comte:

The positivism, he used here is to approach sociological researches
authentically and scientifically. The positivism here is actually emphasizing to
follow the path of scientific research and it concentrates on the quantitative data
rather than the qualitative approach. Because the qualitative approach ensures
objectivity and reliability but qualitative is subjective. He actually wanted to
remove the religious superstitions, which the people at that time blindly believe
in. During his period, the enlightenment, where the people are started thinking
scientifically and industrialism are emerging and transforming into a capitalistic
kind of society. The life of the people become more systematic.
 The law of three stages:
His law of three stages or theory of human progress or even
intellectual development, which actually emphasized on the society’s evolution
through different stages. He wrote about these laws of three stages in his book
Positive Philosophy and the book was released in the year 1822. His law of
three theories shows that man is more becoming rational. He established the
interconnection between the intellectual and social progress, which is when the
there is an intellectual development there is societal evolution.
 a) Theological stage:
The first stage that he proposed in his law of three
theories is called the theological stage or fictitious stage, which means
people only believed and were influenced by supernatural things. The
people in the primitive ages thought that God creates all things and their
mindset is dominated by feelings and sentiments. They even believed
certain myths as social norms. Religion played a major role in shaping the
society and the social mindset that prevailed. The primitive people
actually gave more respect to the king, priests, soldiers because primitive
people believed that these people are sent by the god to protect them and
those people are the only ones who can make contact with the god.
Therefore, the primitive people obey them and never questioned their rule
even. The post of King and priest are much related and they both plan
upon the people’s welfare. In this stage, the social organization is
militaristic in nature. Because they are one to protect the people and
promote social stability. In this stage, people even observed that the only
human can think and not the animals. In addition, Comte divided this
theological divine stage into three sub-stages.
i) Fetishism: here fetishism refers to inanimate/ non-living objects.
They prayed and believed the non-living things, like skulls, stone,
wood and it does not involve priesthood. They relied upon the
magic and miracles.
ii) Polytheism: this second sub-stage actually dealing of praying
many gods. Here ‘poly’ refers to many. They are the ones who
created many natural phenomena and they produced a class of
priesthood and he was very much respected by the people.
iii) Monotheism: ‘mono’ means single. Many gods, many mental
confusions. So people ended up in believing one single god. He is
one powerful being in the entire universe. He is the controller of
everything including the human action and human life.
Finally, Comte when crucially observed the last stage he could find
the intellectual evolution of people, and parallelly there is a visible
change in the social structure and organization. He believed in the
concept of ideas.
 b) Metaphysical stage:
This metaphysical or abstract stage lasted for a
shorter period. Here the Meta refers to the ‘beyond’ and the physical in
the word means the ‘materialistic’. In this stage, people’s focus changed
from supernatural beings towards the supernatural forces. These
supernatural forces, which actually denotes the abstract force/ thing
behind every natural phenomenon. Society’s thought process has altered.
They believes that abstract force is the one that monitors and protects the
social animals. This stage has created the legal type of society and which
is the one dominated the social structure of the society. Law is very much
prevalent and controlled the society People were obliged to follow the
laws. Thereby it is evident that people’s rational way of thinking is
gradually emerging.
c) The positive or scientific stage:
It emerged in 1800. After a long period of
transition, finally, the people started thinking in a scientific way. People
more relied on the factual data rather than merely on imagination. People
are questioning every phenomenon that they encounter. The concept of
divinity and abstract forces due to the progress of the society which faded
away. Now people are more interested to establish the cause and affect
the relationship. Even theoretical were transformed into being positive.
This positive stage provided no chance to depend upon the beliefs and
superstitions. This stage is an amalgamation of observation and the
reasoning tendency of the people. Society has become more objective-
oriented.

During the period of positivism, science brought a profound impact on the

society. Positivism has its roots and came as a result of enlightenment. It
reformed the society in better way. The sociologist uses this positivistic
approach to study the human behavior. His positive philosophy actually denies
the traditional philosophy relied upon speculation. It says that sociology should
not be flexible by allowing the sneaking of the common sense. Any research
should be free from values. All these brought much influence and social change
in society as well as in the discipline of sociology.
Social Darwinism of Herbert Spenser:
He is considered to be the important social philosopher and a social
Darwinist. Herbert Spenser was famous for his evolution theory and organic
analogy in the discipline of sociology. He knows a lot about many subjects, in a
similar way the natural science too. His Social Darwinist theory is more related
to or an expansion of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Charles Darwin’s
theory says that, human creatures undergo a change in the physical
characteristics due to the change in the temperature or change in food patterns.
Herbert extended not only applying it to the plant and animals but also to many
fields. Every form of growth is a kind of evolution. Spenser’s theory states that
the simple form of anything or the homogeneous nature is transformed to a
diverse form of heterogeneous state only through evolution. The term evolution
in social science was borrowed from the disciple of natural science. Spenser
altered the organic evolution by the social evolution, which says the gradual
change in the social patterns. This social evolution talks about how the society
and the human have evolved. Social Darwinism actually comparing the social
evolution with the evolution of organisms, from simple to complex form.
He found three similarities:
a) Regulating system:
The regulating system in organisms is the nervous system
and in society, it is the government, which is responsible
for the regulation.
b) Sustaining system:
The sustaining system for the organisms are
nourishments but for the society, it would be the industries,
social institutions, economy, etc. These help in the
sustainment of our existence.
c) Distributary system:
The distributary system in the organisms are the veins
and the artilleries and for humans, it would be the
transportation, communication which helps in the
disseminating the information and the goods to the people.
In his theory, he added 3 basic laws and the 4 secondary propositions. He was
also renowned for the terming of the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’, which
originated from the theory of social Darwinism. Darwin’s theories also
emphasized in the process of natural selection and Spencer’s social Darwinism
is also associated with the concept of natural selection. The phrase meant that
only the fittest people could be able to survive. The people who are stronger in
their social status and the social position they can survive, they are considered
as the fittest people. Whereas the people have weaker social status and social
positions hard to survive, they will be vanished from the society gradually and
they are considered as the unfit people. Later Darwin is adopting this term by
using in his book.

Conclusion:
While comparing both Auguste Comte and spencer both of them are
concerned with the evolution of the social world. Comte’s positivism is
human’s transformation towards intellectual thinking and facts oriented.
Whereas Spenser’s theory of evolution, first involves the increased coherence
that is increase in integration then the next step is simple to distinct
transformation, which is the increase in the differentiation and then the third
step is moving from the stage of dilemma to order, here happens the evolution
from the indefinite to definite. They both are lured by the science.

CITATION:
1. Positivism, Sociology and Social Research:
https://revisesociology.com/2015/05/19/positivism-sociology-social-
research/
2. Sociological skill: http://www.dspmuranchi.ac.in/pdf/Blog
3. Law of Three Stages: The Corner Stone of Auguste Comte’s :
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/sociology/law-of-three-stages-the-
corner-stone-of-auguste-comtes/43729
4. Auguste Comte: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Auguste-Comte
5. Spencer’s theory of evolution
https://www.shareyouressays.com/essays/essay-on-spencers-theory-of-
evolution/86924
6. Spenser and social Darwinism:
https://socialsci.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Sociology/Introduction_to_So
ciology/Book%3A_Sociology_(Boundless)/01%3A_Sociology/
1.02%3A_The_History_of_Sociology/1.2D
%3A_Spencer_and_Social_Darwinism
7. Social Darwinism: https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism